Boulder Entrepreneurs Get Personal to Reduce Stigma of Mental Illness

Colorado Public Radio
recently featured two prominent members of Boulder’s tech community – and friends
and supporters of Boulder Community Health -- for their work in bringing
mental health and depression out of the shadows.

Brad Feld, co-founder of the venture firm the
Foundry Group and Jerry Colonna, co-founder and CEO at
Reboot.io, a coaching company based in Boulder, are successful local tech entrepreneurs
vocal about the need for entrepreneurs to talk about their own mental
health -- for themselves and their businesses.

“I think it’s much more prevalent than anyone up to this point
has been willing to acknowledge,” Feld told CPR about depression
and anxiety disorders in the technology community. “The stigma is
profound.”

“There’s this concomitant lionization of entrepreneurs that
exacerbates the problem,” Colonna said. “I continue to struggle
with it. There are good days and bad days.”

Both men, successful entrepreneurs who have personally struggled with depression,
are working to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness in the entrepreneurial
and high tech community.

Colonna stressed that mental illness, anxiety and depression aren’t
unique to the technology sector. One in four people nationwide suffer
from some form of mental illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

It’s a community issue at the heart of the Boulder Community Health
Foundation’s campaign to raise money for the
Mental Health Endowment, a fund supporting the mental well-being of our patients along the continuum
of care, empowering them to strengthen and maintain their personal independence
as they address their mental health.

The BCH Foundation has set an ambitious goal of raising $2 million dollars
by the end of 2018. The BCH Foundation is also raising money for a brand
new mental health facility near Foothills Hospital. To donate, please visit
bch.org/donate.

Brad Feld and Amy Batchelor have been instrumental in the establishment
of the BCH Foundation’s Mental Health Endowment. Watch our video
below where they, and Lou and Melodie Della Cava, share the importance
improving access to mental health in our Colorado community: